A former colleague of the sales representative charged with buggering a female junior clerk in a hotel said she found him still sleeping in her room at daylight.
She told the jury in the Central Criminal Court that the defendant and a male colleague had come to her room at about 4.45 a.m., just after she went to bed. The second man left after a few minutes and the defendant fell asleep fully-clothed on the spare bed in her room.
He was snoring before she dozed off and was sleeping when she woke at 7.30. She woke him before having a shower but he was asleep again when she returned to the room. He left her room at about 8.15 a.m. The jury also was told told of Garda interviews with the defendant in which he categorically denied he buggered the 22-year-old clerk and said he fell asleep in another female colleague's room.
It was the fourth day of the trial before Mr Justice Budd of a 38-year-old married sales representative who denies buggering the woman and sexually assaulting her in the Killiney Court Hotel, Dublin, on April 17th, 1997, after a company celebration.
Det Sgt Patrick Campbell read a statement made by the defendant on November 11th, 1997, in which he denied the allegations. He said the first he heard about them was on the day the woman was sacked some weeks after the party.
He said he immediately cancelled a business trip to Germany to make himself available for questioning and told his wife about the allegation. The woman had never said anything to him before she made the claims against him on the day she was dismissed.
Det Sgt Campbell told Mr Hugh Hartnett SC (with Ms Una McGurk) prosecuting, that the defendant said both he and a male colleague, who gave evidence earlier, spent some time in the alleged victim's room at about 4 a.m., before she asked them to leave.
They then went to another female colleague's room. She had objected to them coming to her room at that time and had asked them to be quiet. He fell asleep on the spare bed. He went back to his male colleague's room at about 8.30 a.m. and they went down to breakfast.
Det Sgt Campbell told Mr Hartnett he met the defendant again on November 15th and asked him a series of questions including why the junior clerk would make the allegation against him. The defendant replied he had been racking his brains to try to work that out.
The defendant said her sacking had nothing to do with him at all. He didn't know how her mind worked and he thought she might have been trying to make a case for unfair dismissal. He agreed he would have discussed the case with his other female colleague before she made her statement but he did not ask her to lie on his behalf, as there was no reason to do that.
The hearing continues today.